Melbourne law students compete in legal app-building competition

Law students will compete in the 2017 ‘Law Apps Bake Off’ on Thursday 25 May at Melbourne Law School. Over the course of a semester, the students have worked in the Law Apps course with non-profit legal-service organisations to create applications that help Australian citizens address legal challenges.

The students built the apps using the AI software-development technology of Neota Logic.

Students will unveil their creations at Thursday’s Bake Off event before a panel of judges, who will evaluate the apps based on a variety of criteria including innovation, user experience and effectiveness.

While designing and building their apps over the semester, students have learned how technology in general can be used to solve real-world problems in the legal sector. Law Apps instructor Gary Cazalet says, “The course has been very popular among students since its start two years ago and has led to employment offers for many students from law firms and corporations.”

For law student Annabel Tresise, the course has shown how technology can help improve access to justice for people in need: “Millions of people need legal help but don’t know how to get it or can’t afford it. So it’s very exciting to apply technology to help meet that need,” Tresise noted.

Course instructor Cazalet added that the course receives support from technology provider Neota Logic and the law firm Slater and Gordon.

Neota Logic’s Managing Director of Asia Pacific, Julian Uebergang, said, “It’s exciting to see how law students apply Neota Logic’s technology to address legal and business issues in novel ways. The course at Melbourne is one of numerous courses that enables future lawyers without programming experience to solve real-world problems through software.”

Australian researchers will focus on the plight, rights and status of stateless people at the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, which will be launched at Melbourne Law School on Monday 26 March 2018.

For the first time, Australia has been elected into the UN Human Rights Council along with Saudi Arabia, the Phillipines and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Professor Hilary Charlesworth discusses the legitimacy of the elections and says that this appointment gives Australia an opportunity to examine its own human rights record. Recorded on October 17, 2017 with ABC News' Kathryn Robinson.

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Human rights and international law expert Professor Hilary Charlesworth, says that Australia's appointment to the UN Human Rights Council gives the country an opportunity to examine its own human rights record.